A Yellow Ray of Hope

In line with what I set out in my letter Lim Kit Siang (subscription required) in Parliament yesterday urged the government not to “politicise the gathering by saying that it’s a racial gathering. There was nothing racial about it. People from all parties and races were present so it is a national issue and not a political issue that can be played up by the ruling government.”

Kit Siang goes on to say that “We are serious in this matter, and we are not playing politics. The real question here is whether the electoral roll has many defects. We saw thousands of people in the gathering. Is the government ready to give a positive response instead of making baseless and wild accusations?”

As I asked in my last post – why is this being made into a partisan issue? If BN were smart they would have taken a different approach.

What did our esteemed Law Minster, Nazri Aziz, have to say about the rally? Ah yes, he of the imaginary Witness Protection Bill fame (erm it was supposedly all his press secretary’s fault). Also, let’s not forget that he’s also famous for screaming racist/perkauman in Parliament over 40 times in the span of a few minutes….here’s a video documenting part of that performance if you’re in the mood for some comic relief.

Well, according to Nazri it is pointless to try and understand the reason behind the rally as the “brains of opposition members do not function well.” According to him it’s all a “pondan matter”…yeah…I don’t get the analogy either.

But then…I’m a mere mortal and not a political master like he is. He’s got a great job though don’t you think? He gets to say as many slanderous things as he wants all day in Parliament without fear of impending lawsuits. It’s a perk he seems to take full advantage of.

Moving along…my apologies for the late update but attached below are a picture and a video from the small BERSIH rally (minus teargas, chemically laced water and unprovoked kicks to our necks) on Saturday. For many months now, since the Lina Joy decision really, I’ve been in a state of deepening despair over the situation in Malaysia. The events of Saturday were a ray of hope to me – a yellow ray of hope.

The people have spoken but will the-powers-that-be listen and act accordingly? Only time will tell.

Like you, I go into anger and despair every time I read Malaysian news. Sometimes it’s just more convenient to avoid it, but I hate the ambiguity of that many Malaysians have to live with: We know something is wrong, but we don’t know how/ don’t want to fix it.

It’s at rallies like these that will continue to inch towards incremental change. Congratulations, love your work.

Thank you for visiting. I ought to mention that I think Malaysians must also insist on holding local council elections. It is in some ways a more logical starting point than even general elections. From my understanding, local council elections were suspended in the ’60s during the Communist Insurgency and have never been reinstated – this is inexcusable. We are not only stuck with potholes but also the likes of Zakaria Mat Deros. To have local council elections will, I believe, empower Malaysians and show all of us that it is within our power to fix what is wrong with our society. More on that in another post…